I was looking for this thread again. I saw your borrowed idea and really like the ability to change and modify that design in the future. That is one of the most attractive things. Also, make for much easier assembly without a welder, or lugging bed frames to a friends house for a case of beer. And, it is obviously lighter with all of those holes. I was at the local hardware store (haven't checked HD or Lowes yet) and they had 120" sections of that galvanized stuff for $30. Do you remember what you paid? I wish it were a bit cheaper as bed frames are free, but trying to weight the advantages. The ability to change from a gravity fed converted cooler MT to a direct fired keggle MT easily has a lot of appeal. I'll be plumbing mine with NG from my house, which also has its own set of pricey gear!

The small amount of water under the stand you see in the pic below, is from the length of hose between the white polysulfone female QD and the yellow handle ball valve at the water filter output (left side). Even with the ball valve shut off, that water in that length will sort of drip out. Make sense? Is this what you mean?

I think he was just kidding.

all that typing for nothing. I read it too quick and thought he asked "with all those HOSES"...stupid me.

gifty74 wrote:I was looking for this thread again. I saw your borrowed idea and really like the ability to change and modify that design in the future. That is one of the most attractive things. Also, make for much easier assembly without a welder, or lugging bed frames to a friends house for a case of beer. And, it is obviously lighter with all of those holes. I was at the local hardware store (haven't checked HD or Lowes yet) and they had 120" sections of that galvanized stuff for $30. Do you remember what you paid? I wish it were a bit cheaper as bed frames are free, but trying to weight the advantages. The ability to change from a gravity fed converted cooler MT to a direct fired keggle MT easily has a lot of appeal. I'll be plumbing mine with NG from my house, which also has its own set of pricey gear!

The stand is relatively light and manageable but still sturdy. The black iron pipe adds to the weight. There are two 4" casters under the HLT side so I can easily lift the BK side and wheel it around if need be (without the kegs of course).I bought/ordered most of the slotted angle lengths from a few local hardware stores....they mostly had 5' and 6' sections for around $14. Not really cheap and it would have been better if I could have found longer sections to cut down. HD and Lowes didn't have the galvanized stock at the time.

Yeah, heating and just the weight, I was wondering if that would make it fail / bow. The stuff I'm looking at looks identical to yours, and it feels very hefty to me. I talked to a few at work and they said don't even bother, go with 1.5" angle iron. That is some tough stuff, and I think overkill. Besides, it would weigh 400 lbs! How many times have you brewed on it? Have you seen any warping or anything due to heat? They won't be under direct fire so I wouldn't think it would be a problem. Is yours a HERMS setup, or do you have a direct fired MT?

gifty74 wrote:Yeah, heating and just the weight, I was wondering if that would make it fail / bow. The stuff I'm looking at looks identical to yours, and it feels very hefty to me. I talked to a few at work and they said don't even bother, go with 1.5" angle iron. That is some tough stuff, and I think overkill. Besides, it would weigh 400 lbs! How many times have you brewed on it? Have you seen any warping or anything due to heat? They won't be under direct fire so I wouldn't think it would be a problem. Is yours a HERMS setup, or do you have a direct fired MT?

It's more of a RIMS as I understand. The MT is direct fired so the wort is heated during the mash and recirculated back on top of the grain bed.

I believe the angle iron I used was 1.5". It's pretty sturdy stuff and I don't think it will warp with the heat. Each area the kegs sit in are 16" x 16" so only the edges of the kegs touch (and the burner centered underneath). If you look at the first picture I posted you can see that each keg fits snug into a slot (slide in from the front) and won't shift side to side. Most of the time the holes lined up for bolting together. When they didn't, a step bit helped out.

The burner in the middle doesn't come in direct contact with the angle iron. I brewed on it this past weekend and will again this coming weekend. I can only assume over the course of time, the galvanized zinc coating might burn off and might be subject to rust in those spots.

I saw Benjys build before I came across your design. Real nice setup. What are the dimensions of your rig? How did you cut the angle iron? I have a feeling that a hack saw is going to be a real workout.

Gifty74,The thread includes McMaster Carr product numbers for the 1.5 x 1.5 angle iron, $8.66/6ft. Shipping is reasonable and fast. If you're lucky they will have a distribution center near you and you can pick up local.

JLBrew wrote:usmcruz is too far away and charges too much for shipping, jk!

You never asked, and if you did, I wouldnt charge you nothing for shipping! . I wouldnt charge you for labor either, just material, because I think your a stand up guy! . I would be expecting a good amount of beer from your first batch sent to me, of course .

"There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter" Ernest Hemmingway

JLBrew wrote:I bought/ordered most of the slotted angle lengths from a few local hardware stores....they mostly had 5' and 6' sections for around $14. Not really cheap and it would have been better if I could have found longer sections to cut down. HD and Lowes didn't have the galvanized stock at the time.

Check with your local overhead door company or wholesaler. I went to lowes when installing doors on my workshop and they wanted $23 for an 8 foot piece. I went to the overhead door wholesaler and they wanted $3.50 per 8 foot stick.

JLBrew wrote:usmcruz is too far away and charges too much for shipping, jk!

You never asked, and if you did, I wouldnt charge you nothing for shipping! . I wouldnt charge you for labor either, just material, because I think your a stand up guy! . I would be expecting a good amount of beer from your first batch sent to me, of course .

I was just kidding cruz. I'm sure you would have hooked it up!! I was just in a hurry to build and get brewing as soon as possible. I'm quite happy with it right now but it might not be the last stand I build. I really like having everything bolted together so I can move things around.

nyc_sud wrote:LJBrew,

I saw Benjys build before I came across your design. Real nice setup. What are the dimensions of your rig? How did you cut the angle iron? I have a feeling that a hack saw is going to be a real workout.

Gifty74,The thread includes McMaster Carr product numbers for the 1.5 x 1.5 angle iron, $8.66/6ft. Shipping is reasonable and fast. If you're lucky they will have a distribution center near you and you can pick up local.

I put a metal cut-off wheel on my chop saw which made quick work and clean cuts. I wouldn't want to cut all that with a hack saw. Most of the slots lined up...any that didn't, had to be clamped then drilled, not a prob though.

She measures:- 54" L (left to right) - 44" H on right (material on right side under HLT).....top to ground is 48", including 4" casters- 24" H on left (under BK)- 16" W

JLBrew wrote:I bought/ordered most of the slotted angle lengths from a few local hardware stores....they mostly had 5' and 6' sections for around $14. Not really cheap and it would have been better if I could have found longer sections to cut down. HD and Lowes didn't have the galvanized stock at the time.

Check with your local overhead door company or wholesaler. I went to lowes when installing doors on my workshop and they wanted $23 for an 8 foot piece. I went to the overhead door wholesaler and they wanted $3.50 per 8 foot stick.

I probably should have priced it out some where else to get it cheaper. Over head door company would be a good source.

I just found a local source that sells Unistrut (the stuff everyone says is great to use for a build, but is expensive) for $18 for 10 ft of the 1 5/8" x 3/4" and $23 for the 1 5/8" x 1 5/8". Isn't that a good price? I think that's cheaper than what they were asking for 10 ft of the slotted angle I had been considering . I'm going to go see for myself, but if that's the price I think I'm going to fab out of that, using their fasteners where required and regular bolts where not. I'm going to go off of these basic plans and suit it to my needs. One twist is I'm thinking of building it in thirds so I can move a burner around if needed, and stack the two smaller thirds (burner stands for HLT and BK) on top of each other to minimize storage space. I've seen this in another post and I thought it would be a nice feature. That eliminates the hard piping though, which is also nice. However, with the Unistrut I can just lock it together in the future with a few L brackets or just bolts. Maybe I'll finally get this thing started by the weekend.